It's "Oh So British" But ...

... What about the weather here in the UK?!?!  One minute I was basking in the sun, even getting my cropped trousers out, the next I'm putting my fleecy jim jams on!  I got a sharp reminder this evening that it is only April here and not the middle of summer as I was led to believe last week!

Anyhoo, I only popped in to show you a layout!  Yes that's right, I have been doing a bit of scrapping :)  Now I love sketches, they are great when my mojo is on holiday, so it makes sense to join a sketch group.  Someone posts a sketch, we have a month to come up with a layout and then we have a couple of reveal days, where we show off our layouts, before the next sketch is posted.  Last month's sketch looked like this:

I loved it and embraced it and came up with this:

He's another thing I love and embrace :)  I got to use up lots of older stash that I decided I had to 'use or lose'.....yeah, right, as IF I'm going to get rid of stash!!!

This is one of my favourite photos of Alfie and the title is one of the songs I'm always singing to him.

I'm off to snuggle under a blankie with Maddie and watch some of our favourite programmes.  I hope everyone who has snow is staying safe.

Take care and thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

The Sun is Back

After days of rain it has been beautiful and sunny here today so I got a chance to wander around the garden after work.  Although I was glad of the rain because my veggies really needed it.  The grass that has gone from brown and dying, which I was sad about, to lush and green, which makes me very happy.  The fact that it's now over a foot high is not that great, I don't know how I'll get the mower through it.......maybe I should hire some sheep!  Which, incidentally, is what the vicar did at the local parish church when funds wouldn't run to a gardener!

I had a lovely, lazy day on Sunday (after I'd done all of the housework and ironing) and I managed to do a layout based on last week's Shimelle's sketch:

 Maddie's first school picture when she joined nursery.  I loved the jumper she was wearing, in fact I loved it so much that I used to force it over her head, with much protesting from her, because it looked snug and cosy and it was a great colour.......the things us mums do!

I managed to use lots of scraps and bits and pieces that I'd had lying around for ages.

This week is turning into a busy one for me, a crop on Thursday and down to see Paul at the weekend, can't wait.

I hope your week is going well
Jo xx

A Totally New Experience

To cut a very long story short, I have been having a reflux problem for the past 3 months and today was D-Day!  I had to have a camera put into my stomach to find out what the problem was, nothing was found so back to the drawing board...but....they gave me the photos of my insides!  I never dreamt they would and now everyone is wanting to have a look, don't worry I won't share them on here and they won't ever turn up on a layout, but how amazing :)

I'd taken today off of work for the procedure and, as it was first thing this morning, I've had all afternoon to scrap.  I decided to do Shimelle's sketch this week because I have done one for ages, here's the result:

Maddie being a bridesmaid for the third time back in 2001 for my brother.  The flowers were overwatered which made them heavy and her ribbon broke so she had to carry them in her arms, hence the miserable look on her face!

And it gave me the chance to do a bit of stash busting as I used an old Sarah's Cards kit, so old I can't remember which month it is!

I have tomorrow off of work too and I'm looking forward to being a lady of leisure.

I hope your week has started well.
Jo xx

My Weekend....

.....starts today! Yes that's right, no work for me tomorrow and I'm so excited :) I'm going down to the seaside to spend some time with Paul and maybe have a paddle.

I recently joined a sketch challenge group on UKScrappers and have now completed my first layout from the May sketch.

The sketch is from PageMaps and here is my interpretation of it:

The papers are Lily Bee's This and That from Gotta Craft's May kit and it's all about the lovely room Maddie had when we went on holiday a few years ago.  It was Easter and we'd gone to spend a few days on Sandbanks in Dorset, the weather was surprisingly hot and we all managed to dip our toes in the sea.  Maddie's room was gorgeous, out of one window she could see the Sandbanks peninsular, out of the other she could see Bournemouth, hence the title:

 I'll be back that way tomorrow and I can't wait, it feels like I haven't seen the sea for such a long time.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you all have a great weekend.
Jo xx